From: aph <aph@313b444b-1b9f-4f58-a734-7bb04f332e8d>
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 02:14:44 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: Sec "Handling debconf translations", updates from Martin Quinson
X-Git-Url: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?a=commitdiff_plain;h=3137e7d85c48c471ae824d65d53f292ec5a4fe2f;p=developers-reference.git

Sec "Handling debconf translations", updates from Martin Quinson
for po-debconf with minimal editorial changes, closes: #169007


git-svn-id: svn://anonscm.debian.org/ddp/manuals/trunk/developers-reference@1938 313b444b-1b9f-4f58-a734-7bb04f332e8d
---

diff --git a/developers-reference.sgml b/developers-reference.sgml
index ae6336c..6624ddd 100644
--- a/developers-reference.sgml
+++ b/developers-reference.sgml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   <!entity % commondata  SYSTEM "common.ent" > %commondata;
 
   <!-- CVS revision of this document -->
-  <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.140 $">
+  <!entity cvs-rev "$Revision: 1.141 $">
   <!-- if you are translating this document, please notate the CVS
        revision of the developers reference here -->
   <!--
@@ -3000,36 +3000,34 @@ hand crafted rules file.
 
 	<sect1 id="handling-debconf-translations">Handling debconf translations
 	<p>
-Like porters, translators have a difficult task.  Since they work on many
-packages, they cannot keep track of every change in packages in order to
-be informed when a translated string is outdated.  Fortunately
-<package>debconf</package> can automatically report outdated translations,
-if package maintainers follow some basic guidelines described below.
-	<p>
-Translators can use <prgn>debconf-getlang</prgn> (package
-<package>debconf-utils</package>) to write a <file>templates.xx</file>
-file containing both English and localized fields (where <em>xx</em> is
-the language code, may be followed by a country code).  This file can be
-put into the <file>debian</file> subdirectory without any change.
-	<p>
-When building a binary package, <file>debian/templates.xx</file> files are
-merged along with <file>debian/templates</file> to generate the
-<file>templates</file> file contained in the binary package.  This is
-automatically done by <prgn>dh_installdebconf</prgn> (package
-<package>debhelper</package>). If you do not use debhelper, you can
-do the same with <prgn>debconf-mergetemplate</prgn>
-(package <package>debconf-utils</package>). 
-	<p>
-When the package maintainer needs to update the templates file, they only
-change <file>debian/templates</file>.  When English strings in this file
-and in <file>debian/templates.xx</file> differ, translators do know that
-their translation is outdated.
-	<p>
-Please see the page about
-<url id="&url-debconf-l10n-help;" name="localizing debconf templates files">
-at the Debian web site, it contains more detailed instructions, including a
-full example.
-
+Like porters, translators have a difficult task.  They work on many
+packages and must collaborate with many different
+maintainers. Moreover, most of the time, they are not native English
+speaker, so you may need to be particularly patient with them.
+	<p>
+The goal of <package>debconf</package> was to make packages
+configuration easier for maintainers and for users.  Originally,
+translation of debconf templates was handled with
+<prgn>debconf-mergetemplate</prgn> from the
+<package>debconf-utils</package> package.  Since
+<package>debconf</package> version 1.2.9,
+<prgn>debconf-mergetemplate</prgn> has been deprecated and a new
+system called <package>po-debconf</package> is strongly
+encouraged. This new method is much easier both for the maintainer and
+the translators, and you should upgrade your packages to use it.
+Transition scripts are provided.
+	<p>
+Using <package>po-debconf</package>, the translation is stored in
+<file>po</file> files (drawing from <prgn>gettext</prgn> translation
+techniques).  Special template files contain the original messages and
+mark which fields should be translated. When you change the original,
+calling the <prgn>debconf-updatepo</prgn> script with no argument is
+enough to mark the translation as needing attention from the
+translators. Then, at build time, use the
+<prgn>dh_installdebconf</prgn> program take care of all the needed
+magic to add the template along with the up-to-date translations into
+the binary packages.  Refer to the <manref name="po-debconf"
+section="7"> manual page for details.
 
     <sect id="specific-practices">
 	<heading>Specific packaging practices</heading>